Title

Author(s) Information

Department

Computer Science Department

Degree Name

BS in Computer Science

Date

6-2017

Advisor(s)

Clark S. Turner

Abstract/Summary

The average smartphone owner checks their phone more than 150 times per day. As of 2015, 62% of smartphone users had used their phone to look up information about a health condition, while 57% had used their phone to do online banking. Mobile platforms have become the dominant medium of human-computer interaction. So how have these devices established themselves as our go to connection to the Internet? The answer lies in addictive design. Software designers have become well versed in creating software that captivates us at a primal level. In this article, we survey addictive software design strategies, their bases in psychology, and their applications in popular software products. We offer a novel taxonomy to better categorize these addictive design strategies. Additionally, we explore a study conducted at the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo that illustrates the efficacy of one of the addictive design strategies.